Fawad Razaqzada

Middle East concerns should keep the downside limited for crude oil, after prices slid 3% as demand concerns intensified on weaker Chinese industrial data and amid the prospects of higher interest rates for longer. WTI technical analysis suggests the longer-term trend remains bullish, with the first short-term support level to watch coming in around $82 area.

USD/CAD outlook undermined by rising Fed rate cut expectations. First week of 2024 could be a busy one for USD/CAD, but there are also a few macro highlights still lift for 2023...

After hitting a new all-time high in February, the FTSE has struggled to find any sustainable support, hurt by concerns over China, UK’s struggling economy and high interest rates across the world. But we have had some positive data out of China, the UK and US this week, which may mean the worst days are behind us.

The optimism we saw last week was all based on signs of peak interest rates in the US. To give you an idea of what kind of a week it was, the Dow enjoyed its biggest weekly gain since October 2022, while the S&P and Nasdaq had their best weeks since November 2022. While those gains are impressive, so far, we haven’t seen any follow through.

Welcome to another edition of Forex Friday, a weekly report in which we highlight selected currency themes. In this week’s report we will discuss the dollar’s outlook and how the upcoming data releases could impact the direction of major pairs like the EUR/USD and AUD/USD.